Upgrading to Windows 10 through Windows Update saves all your existing settings, software, and software settings. It’s the no-fuss way if you want to just get Windows 10 and continue where you left off with Windows 8 or 7. Even if you aren’t using Windows Update, no matter which method to install Windows 103 Easy Ways To Install Windows 10 Technical Preview 3 Easy Ways To Install Windows 10 Technical Preview You can try Windows 10 Technical Preview for free and help Microsoft polish its new flagship operating system. Before you install it, make sure you choose the best method for your needs.Read More you use, it will detect an existing Windows on your hard drive. Pick that option when prompted and all your settings will stay intact.

Clean Installation: Programs Only, Not Customization

However, Windows has a tendency to slow down over time because of the badly coded programs you have installed over the years. A fresh Windows installation can be a good way to speed up your sluggish computer.

While it’s not a big loss, it does mean you will have to take a little time in setting up your operating system the way you want it. This is a good thing, though. By now, you know the tweaks you want in Windows, so you can quickly set them up and move on.

Desktop Programs

On the bright side, your installed desktop programs and their settings can be backed up easily with a new tool called CloneApp.

The downside of this is that the Windows Registry is the main reason your computer slows down, as installed programs covertly make their way into your Windows startup, run instances when there isn’t a need to.

The procedure is just like CloneApp. On your existing Windows 8 installation, first update all your Modern apps. Then download and extract Windows 8 Apps Data Backup, run it, choose Backup, select the apps you want to keep, click “Backup Now”. Copy the entire folder to a pen drive.

On Windows 10, copy the folder from the pen drive to the main hard drive. Run Windows 8 Apps Data Backup again, choose “Restore”, select the apps you want on your new system, click “Restore Now”.

This nifty little tool surprised us. It works well for most apps and games. Just make sure that before you use it, you have updated all your Modern / Universal apps. Without that, we got multiple errors.

Take Your Drivers with You

Don’t forget to backup your drivers. You’ll take all the care in the world about backing up your data, but if your router or printer can’t connect to Windows because of a faulty driver, it’s pointless. While this problem won’t happen if most of your hardware is new, it can crop up for old tools, like that PCI sound card you bought years ago but is still chugging along fine.

Full Windows Backup and Migration

Zinstall, a paid app that costs $120, offers to migrate all your settings, files, programs, and other data from any existing Windows 7 or Windows 8 installation to a new Windows 10 installation.

The company granted us a license to test their software. The user guide outlines a simple setup and the interface is intuitive. You can choose from several scenarios and pair it with a migration type. To migrate our settings from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, we selected the Moving from machine to container scenario and the Migrate programs, settings, and user profiles type.

We initially ran into issues with corrupt hardware and a third-party application. Sending error reports to Zinstall resulted in a follow-through from their service department within 24 hours, pinpointing issues, suggesting solutions, and immediately releasing software updates. In the end, we successfully migrated Windows 8.1 settings to Windows 10.

We also tried out EaseUS ToDo PC Trans Pro, which costs $49.95. It did a good job of transferring our files and folders, as well as programs with their settings intact, but it couldn’t replicate Windows settings and tweaks.

The Best Way to Upgrade to Windows 10

After trying out so many different programs, there was one path that gave us the best result. It’s more time-consuming than the others, but it’s worth it because our Windows 10 installation was the smoothest with this.

Upgrade to Windows 8.1, if you haven’t already. That’s a critical step.

Use CloneApp to make a list of all programs you have currently installed.

What’s the One Important Setting You Want to Retain?

There are some good reasons to upgrade to Windows 1010 Compelling Reasons to Upgrade to Windows 1010 Compelling Reasons to Upgrade to Windows 10Windows 10 is coming on July 29. Is it worth upgrading for free? If you are looking forward to Cortana, state of the art gaming, or better support for hybrid devices - yes, definitely! And...Read More, but the thought of losing your current way of doing things is a deterrent. Having gone through the Windows 8-to-Windows 10 upgrade and downgrade multiple times during this technical preview phase, I found that it all came down to one great app that needed to work just the way it has always worked: Microsoft Office, in my case. What about you? What’s the one important program or setting you want to retain?

This guy does NOT friggin know what he is talking about. NOT every thing gets transfered over from windows 8.1 to windows 10. Before i upgraded to 10, i watched the video, in the video they CLEARLY stated.... every thing from 8.1 would transfer over to the new 10, not so. exel & word did NOT transfer over. I have LOST a lot of work. Thankfully i did back up while i was still on 8.1.

This guys absolutely nuts. He says that you should clean install but a clean install doesn't keep your settings or apps. Then in the guide he says don't clean install; you should do a direct upgrade. This guy is absolutely nuts. What a confusing post.

I don't understand this post at all. You start off by telling us that you don't need to do anything to upgrade your Settings and Apps and that Windows will do it for us.

You then start going on about a bunch of programs we need to use to get it done.

Where is the transition between Windows does it for us and all these tools you start listing?

It's a very typical and confusing guide that is found on the web these days where people attempt to just write as much as they can without it making any sense.

Why the hell would I use these tools if Windows does it for me? Are you saying i need these tools or are they just an option for the sake of it even though Windows does it for me? You didn't explain that part at all.

OH my GOSH! The more I read about how EASY it is to "upgrade" to Windows 10, the more convoluted it is becoming! I received the bar notification, I grabbed a Best Buy leaflet, I watched a couple of YouTube videos and I am getting farther away from doing it myself. Back up files to a cloud, back up (apps?- do you mean PROGRAMS? because I've been using the terms apps solely for mobile devices.) Other "advice" or "EASY" steps I've come across is make sure your current OS is up to date before you start and another is turn off your anti-virus. I have a sinking feeling I am just not going to get it right.

I am presently running Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (32 Bit). While upgrading to Windows 10, can I switch to 64 Bits version but keeping my current programs with me at the same time? Is there any way for this? Please guide. Thanks.

Well, that's basically a workaround. If you were running 32-bit Windows and you upgraded to 64-bit Windows 10, then EaseUS will give you 32-bit software backups for all your old Windows programs. It defeats the purpose of having a 64-bit version of Windows 10, imo.

Luis Olarte

July 30, 2015 at 9:28 pm

PS: there is just so much that is still wrong with windows10,
like the problems like networks 4.6 or C++ & HTML5 just out of the gate.
Just to many holes for anyone to do or even have some privacy.
HO that word privacy it is a NO NO!! in the eye of any government agency.

I was not having a debate of OS.
I was just stating what my intentions and feelings for windows.
The reason that I use windows is to see what is wrong when I repair someone system & gaming.
But as to how to port steam games.
It is simple go to the first tab on steam, the first one marked steam.
Them go to backup & restored and just backup.
And to be sure that you have everything, copy My games folder in My Documents file under your user.
Then install steam and revers the process restored your backup file then reboot when your are finish.
Then check your user file to see if your games history is back, if it's not back then just over write it.
Ho and then reboot.
This will restored every thing you have played up to that time, on your windows system even if it is not on steam.
If you update your system you will loose info you will need at least 32 GB free space in your C: drive.
It will not matter if you have free space in any other partition, it has to be your c: drive.
Your backup make sure you have enough space for it, it will backup the complete game.
You will not need to reinstall if you have backup, just restore.
Suggestion if you upgrade do not think you will be using the PC any time Soon, do not reboot your PC till it tells you to do so.
And when that is done get your key code with Magical Jelly Bean Key finderhttps://www.magicaljellybean.com/product-key-finder-win7-office2010/
Then get the your new key for windows 10,
And do your self a favor just in case, get your windows key for your current version before you upgrade.
The best way is to have a clean install of windows 10, you can do this one's you have the new key.
You can download the image or ISO from windows. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
hope this helps someone.

My steam games.
But there no worries there, steam has best application for that.
Window has no other real use in my work or life other then gaming
When all the games are ported to Linux, that will be the end off windows in my life.
Since 1981 windows has promised reliability.
That has been the biggest joke that never happen, and on the part of hardware even less.
Even if there was no driver for any of my new hardware, I could always work around it in Linux.
I could never say the same for windows, on some versions windows we had to replace most hardware.
I am not thrifty nor frugal with my hardware, but I would select what is the best for my use.
And lets not even talk of software that was even worst, I stop buying software since vista.
I have windows 7 ultimate 64 and it all free software from ninite, and offline updates to reinstall.
That reduces my reinstall to 2 hours every 3 to 4 months for a moderate speedy system.
In Linux that has a reliability for 6 OS that works for 2 to 3 years, with no problems what so ever.
Could windows ever boast that! never,
That is why most of the net & appliances that have high reliability run on Linux or some Unix system.

Atmel Studio 6.2.
Took all of a weekend because some bits of Windows Studio 10 refused to be updated, except in a particular order that I had to find by trial-and-error.
REminded me of the bad old days of Red Hat, and "Dependency Hell"

Did you manage to get it working in the end? A link or brief explanation would be great. Would be useful for other readers to know how to take Atmel Studio settings with you when upgrading to Windows 10 :)

Hi
Yes, it DID work on the end, think I had to unload Visual studio 2010 totally (Think I removed all the .NET as well, and did a clean reinstall of Atmel Studio with .NET. It prompted me to Install Visual Studio
Once it did, do a windows Update, which added a Service Pack
Then, it worked.
I'm now again on a Windows 7 machine - waiting for the update to Win-10, at that point I'll make sure I log my experiences, and report back here.
-Andy